1/24/2024 0 Comments Rule of rose diana and megOutside Yehud, early Achaemenid-era Aramaic materials from the Jewish garrison at Elephantine (Aramaic, “Yeb”) in Egypt provide insights into the life of the Jewish community there. Under Ancient Persian rule, many Jews returned from exile to the province that became known as “Yehud” (Judah), the Second Temple was built in Jerusalem, and new theological concepts began to appear in biblical texts. Several of the biblical books set in the Achaemenid period are thought by scholars to have been redacted during the earlier period of the second Iranian empire, that of the Parthians ( c. 250 BCE–224 CE). These texts include Deutero-Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah (1–8), I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel. Cyrus’s victory over Nabonidus of Babylon in 539 BCE and the resultant release of Hebrews from Babylonian exile gave him significant standing in several biblical books, which also refer to subsequent Persian kings and rule. At its greatest extent the Persian Empire stretched from Libya and the River Danube in the west to the Indus River and Sogdiana in the east. This first world empire began with Cyrus II’s conquest of his fellow Iranians, the Medes, in about 550 BCE, and came to an end in 330 BCE with the death of Darius III, following the incursion of Alexander of Macedon and his Greek forces. These early Persians are also referred to as “Achaemenids,” after the eponymous ancestor first named in inscriptions by Darius I, and later mentioned by Herodotus. In the context of biblical studies, the term “Persian period” is usually taken to refer to the time when the Ancient Persians were in power throughout the Near East.
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